


A Case of Mistaken Affections

by a_salty_alto



Series: Three Times the Trouble [1]
Category: The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Misunderstandings, Mutual Pining, Triplet AU, Tumblr Prompt, but still with superpowers, indentity porn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-15
Updated: 2018-04-15
Packaged: 2019-04-23 09:16:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14329293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_salty_alto/pseuds/a_salty_alto
Summary: In which Steve is pretty sure Tony's in love with Iron Man





	A Case of Mistaken Affections

**Author's Note:**

> This is based on t[his](https://a-salty-alto.tumblr.com/post/172915471030/imagine-tonio-and-tasha-love-to-do-this-thing) post. It takes place in an AU where Anthony, Antonio, and Natasha Stark are triplets who share the Iron Man mantel, and are also in college. [Here’s](https://a-salty-alto.tumblr.com/post/172323328100/a-salty-alto-fic-idea-anthony-antonio-and) the original post, and [Here’s](https://a-salty-alto.tumblr.com/tagged/triplet-au) the tag.

The Avengers were gathered in the lab trying to track down AIM, who had been stealing parts for something, and escaping before the Avengers could get there. They’re all ready to go as soon as they get a call for another AIM attack, so for now all they could do was watch as Iron Man, Tonio, and Tony work together to figure out how AIM is making so many clean getaways. **  
**

Steve had no clue what they’re saying at all. Even Bruce seemed to be lost, because when the Starks get in the zone they only need to say maybe every third word out loud. Anyway, Steve just stared at Tony’s face scrunched up in concentration and tried to avoid sighing happily at every little movement Tony made. Sam had been telling him to cut that shit out and make a move for weeks.

Steve still made a little gasp of delight when he saw Tony’s eyes widen and he smiled and he made a “eureka” face. Steve loved the look of pure joy on Tony’s face and the excited flash of brilliance he got when he had a breakthrough.

Tony dashed over to the computer, allowing Steve to appreciate the tight jeans he always wore, and  typed some sort of algorithm out. Within moments a map of the city opened up and Tony gestured to it excitedly.

“Tony you’re a genius.” Tonio said, while Tony shrugged.

“It isn’t anything you or Tasha couldn’t do.”

Iron Man put a large gauntleted hand on Tony’s shoulder

“Don’t sell yourself short, Tony, you’re fantastic.” Tony blushed, and muttered something under his breath along the lines of:

“Maybe not in front of the other Avengers guys.”

That’s when Steve started thinking.

On the one hand, Tonio and Tasha tended to compliment  and brag about Tony a lot so it wasn’t weird that Iron Man would too. He was close to the three of them. Hell, Steve wanted to shower Tony with compliments all the time.

Then again Steve was very very very head over heels for Tony, so maybe he was an outlier here? Or was he representative of the data?

Not that the only people who would compliment Tony were people who were in love with him. Or that Steve only thought Tony was amazing because he was in love with him.

Where was this train of thought going again?

Steve shook his head to clear it as the Avengers went out to deal with AIM. He was probably overreacting.

*

A few days later, the Avengers were able to use what the Starks had discovered to stop some of AIM’s thefts, but they were no closer to figuring out what they were up to

Steve was a little annoyed, and mulling over AIM and Iron Man and Tony when he spotted a newspaper stand across the street.

“Oh what is this nonsense.” He said taking a look at the front page of some magazine.

Iron Man flew over and landed behind Steve

“C’mon, Winghead, you know you’ve just gotta ignore the stupid tabloids. Whatever it says is probably 100% pure crap.” He said.

“I’ll say.” Steve angrily turned around and showed the magazine to his teammate. The cover of the was an image of Tonio from a gala last week.

“Oh Cap, that is not the worst picture of Tonio ever taken. He’s actually got his clothes on in this one.”

“Not that, this!” Steve pointed to the blurb in the corner read  _The Hottest Stark’s best looks from the Charity Gala._ “Tonio is not the hottest Stark. It’s Tony”

Iron Man stared at Steve in silence before nodding vigorously.

“Finally, another Intellectual. Anthony Edward Stark is the best looking of all the Starks. That is Iron Man’s official opinion and any time I say otherwise I am lying.”

At the time, Steve was happy for Iron Man’s enthusiastic agreement.

It wasn’t until later when he overheard Tony excitedly talking to Tonio.

“He said I’m the good looking one!” Tony bragged.

“Of course he did,” Tonio chuckled in response.

Steve promptly walked quickly in the other direction, thoughts buzzing through his head.

Were they talking about Iron Man? Could Iron Man really openly say one of his bosses was better than the others? The Starks wouldn’t fire him over something so petty, but Iron Man should probably be more neutral, if for no other reason than Tonio and Tasha would prank him mercilessly.

Steve’s thoughts from the other day came flooding back. Was Iron Man in love with Tony? Did Tonio and Tasha know, and that was why they didn’t even joke about his reaction? Or were they together and keeping it a secret and only Tasha and Tonio knew.

Steve was pacing back and forth through the tower living room when and so lost in thought that he didn’t even hear Tony come up behind him until Tony shouted his name.

“Tony!” Steve stammered. “Uh um, do you need something?”

“Y-yeah. I’ve got those notes you missed from Professor Pym’s class while you were out, you know, saving the city.” Tony said, handing Steve a folder of neatly typed notes.

“Oh. Thanks.” Steve said.

“Do you want to go to a cafe or something?” Tony blurted out. “You know in case I did the thing again, with the notes. I can walk you through them.”

Tony was actually kind of terrible with notes. He tended to overestimate Steve’s base knowledge  and would leave out key information from the notes that he just assumed Steve would know already. Steve didn’t really mind though, because it meant he and Tony could spend hours together going over them.

“Yeah. Sure.” Steve said.

Tony looked at him expectantly for a solid minute.

“Oh! Oh you mean right now,” Steve stuttered, “Yeah, just, just give me a moment.”

*

Steve suggested a place in Brooklyn for it’s quiet atmosphere and not because he specifically wanted someplace far enough away that he could convince Tony to ride on the back of his bike.

Not at all.

Unfortunately, their Not-Study-Date was interrupted before it could even begin when something exploded as they were driving out.

“Thousand bucks says it’s AIM” Tony drawled.

“You don’t need that money.” Steve said as he turned the bike.

He dropped Tony off on the other side of the police perimeter with the bike and rushed in to join the fray. The other Avengers were there and so were a dozen AIM goons.

If Steve hit a little harder than he should’ve well, he was really looking forward to that Not-Study-Date. The AIM guys were fine. As unfashionable as their beekeeper suits were, they could at least take a hit.

“Captain,” Iron Man said, as they finished.up, “where’s Tony?”

“I left him over by the police perimeter.”  Steve explained.

Iron Man gave a curt nod and flew away. Steve sprinted after him to find Iron Man holding Tony bridal style and checking him over.

“I’m fine, jeez” Tony giggled. “You worry too much.”

“Can’t blame me for making sure. You can get into a lot of trouble if you’re left on your own.”

“Oh and you can’t?”

The whole scene looked… kind of intimate.

“Hey Cap!” Tony called as Iron Man set him down. “Wanna get back to what we were doing?”

“No.” Steve said. “I’m tired, I think I’m going to head back to the tower.”

Steve ignored Tony calling his name as he ran back to the Tower.

*

There was a soft knock at Steve’s door. Tony was standing in the hall and looking around nervously.

“Steve! You left the your bag. And your bike keys. And your bike. I didn’t bring your bike all the way up here obviously though I was thinking it could probably use some repairs or maybe upgrades and I brought it down to the lab if you don’t min-”

“Thanks Tony.” Steve said. Tony’s babbling trailed off to into an awkward silence.

“Can, I come in?” Tony asked.

“I don’t know, are you a vampire?”  Steve joked.  Tony visibly relaxed and stepped into the room.

“So, our date kind of got cut short by AIM. And I was wondering if you’d let me make it up to you.”

Before Steve could even blink, Tony stood up on his tiptoes and kissed him.

Steve kissed back for a few seconds before pushing Tony away.

“No. We can’t, Iron Man-” Steve started before Tony interrupted him

“You’re in love with Iron Man?”

“No, you are.” Steve sputtered. Tony’s brown eyes widened in shock.

“You think I’m in love with Iron Man?” Tony’s face was a mixture of disgust and shock. Steve could hear sniggering down the hall.

“You’re brother and sister do remember I have super hearing, right?” Steve asked. Tony blushed as footsteps the laughter and accompanying footsteps faded down the hall.

“I am very sorry for them,” Tony sighed, “and I am 100% not in love with Iron Man. He’s like a brother to all of us.”

“So you’re interested in me?” Steve asked slowly.

“Very much so.” Tony said blushing.

“Well,” Steve coughed, “We’re gonna be a thing, then let’s do this right. How about dinner, tomorrow night at 6?”

Tony beamed and Steve’s heart melted.

“Sounds good Steve.”

*

“I can’t believe he actually thought you were in love with Iron Man!” Tasha had been laughing about this for thirty minutes straight.

“Yeah and it’s your fault! You’re always bragging about me and coddling me as Iron Man.” Tony pouted.

“Awww,” Tasha said, coming around to give Tony a hug, “can’t we just want to show off our awesome little bro and make sure he’s okay?”

“Ten seconds,” Tony muttered, “You’ve got ten seconds on me.”

“Ten seconds and four inches.” Tonio corrected.

“I will hit you. You’re shins are not protected.”  

Tonio ruffled Tony’s hair as Tony glared at the two of them.

**Author's Note:**

> This fic has a Tumblr post [here](https://a-salty-alto.tumblr.com/post/172968152825/supportive-sibs-and-jealous-steve-pls-make-that-a), if you want to reblog it.
> 
> I also answer questions about the AU on my Tumblr if you want to know more.
> 
> Thanks for reading, and have a great day!


End file.
